Peter Cook has worked in hospitality since he was 16, but he's never seen times so difficult for pubs.

The publican took on the lease at the Yackandandah hotel in north-east Victoria five years ago but is now struggling to retain staff and keep the doors open.

One solution he wants to explore is the installation of poker machines. But since 2001 the Indigo Shire, where the hotel sits, has had a policy banning them. 

"Why should I be different to the hotel that's 30 kilometres down the road or 20km down the road?" Mr Cook said.

"It's [about] long-term viability. If you're not earning enough income to pay for services, to pay for the fresh paint jobs, to replace equipment and machinery as it breaks down, then you're actually going backwards, which is where I am today."

Mr Cook said pubs were suffering for a variety of reasons.

"The increase in alcohol excise, the availability of staff. We don't want to become a gaming venue. We just want to be a small country hotel that can produce enough revenue to provide this service," he said.

There are nine Victorian councils without pokies, with some having blanket bans, policies or "understandings" with business owners that poker machines are not to be brought in.

Those local governments are Buloke Shire, Golden Plains, Hindmarsh, Indigo, Loddon, Moyne, Pyrenees, West Wimmera, and Yarriambiack.

They all reported no income from gaming in the 2022–2023 financial year according to the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC).

Mr Cook said he knew of the Indigo Shire's ban before entering the lease at the Yackandandah hotel, but times had changed.

"We made the decision based on the economic times — that through food and beverage and our accommodation, we could make a go of it," he said.

"We could survive on those three [drinks, food, and accommodation] revenue streams.

"Now, in difficult times, we're saying that's not quite enough. We're not making ends meet."

Mr Cook said in the past three months he has let five of his 13 staff go, including his son, to cut back on costs.

"It's not like the people in this shire don't game, don't play pokie machines, they simply just go somewhere else … to the bigger places in our nearest shires and their gaming subsidises their meals and their beverage section so they can offer cheaper meals and drinks," he said.

In July, more than $268 million was lost by the public to gaming machines in every other local government area in Victoria, according to the VGCCC.

Preserving 'character'

Store owner and former president of the Beechworth Chamber of Commerce, which also sits in the Indigo Shire, Elizabeth Mason said having no pokies in the shire contributed to its character.

"Having been a business operator here and a member of the community for 34 years, I think we, as a community, feel really proud and protective of the fact we don't have poker machines here," Ms Mason said.

"It's really not the culture that we exude with a heritage town.

"We're all doing things tough in country rural areas and I know that hospitality and retail are struggling.

"The visitation for a lot of our rural centres is down. So I certainly sympathise with [Peter Cook], but I think there are other avenues."

In a statement, Indigo Shire Mayor Sophie Price said the council was "not aware of any community appetite" to reconsider its position on poker machines and that she would be "very surprised" if that was the case.

"Indigo Shire is well known for its 'pokies free' status and in 2014 we joined with other councils from across Victoria, the Municipal Association of Victoria, and the Salvation Army to seek government action to protect vulnerable communities from inappropriate placement of poker machines," she said.

"Nothing has changed for us and we don't envisage that it will."

Protecting business 

Since 2012, Moyne Shire has had a policy against the introduction of pokies anywhere in the council area.

Councillor Jordan Lockett said councils were best placed to make a decision around pokies for their constituents.

"We're connected with the community," he said.

"Often at a state and federal level, they're either in Melbourne, King Street, or up in Canberra.

He said if communities don't want something, councillors "certainly hear about it".

"In small communities such as Mortlake, Peterborough, Port Fairy, and Koroit, they're the biggest kind of towns within the shire, which are still very small communities," he said.

Grassroots advocacy against machines 

In 2014, Charles Sturt University sociologist John McDonald researched the impacts of pokies on communities.

Professor McDonald said well-organised grassroots advocacy could have an impact in slowing down or stopping the rollout of pokie machines.

"Interestingly, in Victoria, it becomes incumbent upon the community or the local council to mount a case that there is significant community opposition to poker machines," he said.

"Local communities and councils have to be on the front foot if they want to oppose the introduction of poker machines. It's also meant that the system we have in Victoria is highly legalistic, very costly, and very time-consuming.

"Other states and territories have quite a different approach where state governments have a lot more power to determine the overall cap and the distribution of poker machines."

Professor McDonald said it was in a council's best interest to oppose or remove pokies from their local government areas.

"The economic benefit of poker machines flows to the operators, the owners of poker machines, and to the state government."

Professor McDonald said it was local charities or local councils that bore the cost of the negative impact — economically and socially — of the introduction of poker machines.

"So communities and local councils, I think, are put in a really interesting position," he said.

"The current legislation in Victoria positions communities and local councils as being important players in making a decision.

"But it also means that local governments and communities have to take a very active role."